Cabin Fever
by LastAboard
Summary: My best friend Edward and I have always shared the Twin Room at the cabin. If Tanya thinks she's sleeping in the Twin Room, she's lost her mind. AH. OOC. Canon Couples. Rated M for language, a lemon and potential rug burn.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! First, I'd like to say that if you've gotten as far as reading this first sentence, I'm already grateful that you are taking the time to give this little one-shot a chance! I know you have a lot of choices when it comes to fan fic so thank you for spending your time reading this one – I hope it doesn't let you down!**

**I'm not new to writing but this is the first derivative piece of work I've ever done and incidentally, is also my first piece with a lemon that I've decided to post.**

**Thank you to Emmy at the Perv Pack Smut Shack for her Pervy Picspirations this week – I wrote this in response to her request for stories about rain/storms.**

**Enjoy!**

**I do not own Twilight or its characters. No copyright infringement is intended. I do, however, own the plot of this derivative work and ask that this story not be reposted or reproduced without my permission. This story is rated M and not intended for readers under the age of 18. **

**BPOV**

"I just don't think I could take the rejection again. No way. I mean, he really hurt me, you know?"

I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white as I listened to Tanya blab on and on in the back seat.

_Actually, I wouldn't know_, I thought, _and I doubt anyone else would either, since you've been trying to get into Edward's pants with as much gusto as ever_. As I had to do quite frequently with Tanya, I tried to convince myself to stay quiet.

The rain pelted my windshield as I sped down the highway, heading for Angela's family's cabin, practically flinging my car around the tight corners. We'd gotten a late start and I had been anxious to get there and just relax. I could see the taillights of Emmett's SUV ahead of me and Edward's Volvo just ahead of that. The fact that I was actually keeping up with them was a testament to how fast I was going – those two gave new meaning to the term "lead foot".

"You know, Bella, I think I'd like to live long enough to actually get to the cabin," Alice teased me from the passenger seat. I looked over at her and grimaced as I eased up on the gas pedal.

"Sorry. I'm just kind of…annoyed," I said, glancing in the rearview mirror at Tanya, who was still going on about her broken heart to Jessica and Rosalie and completely oblivious to the conversation Alice and I were having. Jessica, who was sitting between Rose and Tanya, was doing her best to look sympathetic, sprinkling a few comforting words here and there. Rose stared out her window with a look of pure indifference.

"Well, it's not like we couldn't have expected this," Alice muttered, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I know," I sighed, resigning myself to just tuning Tanya out. "It's just getting old."

"Oh, honey, it's been old for over a year."

#CF#

Tanya had been harboring a gigantic crush on Edward since we were around fifteen or sixteen years old. It seemed to come out of the blue when she told us girls that she 'like-liked' him, since we'd all been friends for at least five or six years, if not longer, and she'd never said anything before. Other than that, it started out just like every other teenage crush does – she'd flirt with him, blushing when he spoke to her and giggling at everything he said that was in any sort of joking tone. If I'm being honest, the guys in our group were easy to flirt with – they still are – and had never been shy about hugging and flirting back with their female friends. Looking back, I feel like one of us should have warned Edward, maybe saved him a little hassle by letting him know that Tanya had begun to take his hugs and friendly teasing to mean more than they actually did.

When we graduated high school and went to college, Tanya was devastated that Edward had picked a school out of state. I'm not sure why _she _was the devastated one, seeing as how he was _my _best friend, but Tanya'd always had a flair for drama, I suppose. The rest of us were bummed that we wouldn't see him everyday like we'd grown used to over the past decade, but Edward wasn't exactly hurting for money and we weren't concerned about him not being able to come home for the holidays and some weekends here and there.

I still remember with perfect clarity the look on Tanya's face the day she found out Edward was dating Charlotte. I remember it because it was a strange mix of anger and shock, but mostly just looked like she wanted to strangle somebody. When she saw a picture of Charlotte, who was as pretty as any of us (except maybe Rosalie) she wondered aloud what could have attracted Edward to 'such a mousy, plain girl'. The girl I saw in the picture had long, glossy black hair and icy blue eyes. She was petite and girly looking in a short purple dress and the smile on her face was warm. I think it was at that point that I realized Tanya wasn't exactly thinking in realistic terms when it came to Edward.

After Edward moved away, I talked to him a few times a week over the phone. One day when we were in our third year at college, Edward called me to tell me he'd be coming home for the weekend. We'd planned on going to Angela's cabin and he'd missed out on the last trip to go on a spring break trip with Charlotte's parents so he wasn't going to miss this one.

"I'm not working on Thursday night; I can come pick you guys up from the airport." I told him as I dug through my desk drawer for a pen to take down his flight information.

"Oh. Um, it's just me, actually. Charlotte and I are kind of on a break."

"A break?"

"Yeah. She says she needs some time to think about 'us'. She told me she needed to know what my long term plans were. I thought she meant stuff like grad school but she proceeded to give me this timeline for when we should get married and have kids and just…I don't know. It was a little crazy. Oh, and did I mention that this plan included getting married pretty much right after college?"

"Whoa. Holy shit, Edward. I didn't realize she was so…focused."

He barked out a laugh.

"It's funny you say that because she said I wasn't focused enough. I didn't know that being unsure about getting married when you're only 23 years old made you unfocused."

#CF#

No one in the group was working the next Thursday and they all decided to go up to the cabin early in the day, leaving me to pick up Edward and the two of us to drive up alone that night. My car was stuffed to the brim with food the guys thought we'd need over the weekend and it was just the overflow to what was already shoved into the back of Emmett's Jeep and Jasper's truck bed.

When I pulled up to the arrivals curb at the airport, Edward was already outside waiting for me. I didn't bother popping the trunk – nothing else could have fit in there – and got out of the driver's seat to help Edward wedge his small suitcase into the space left in the back seat. Once we'd gotten it in and had the door shut, I turned to him and hugged him. Edward towered over me by more than a foot and as usual, he bent his long legs to put his face on my level and as soon as I'd wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders, he pulled me to him and stood up straight, dangling my feet off the ground.

"I'm glad you could come home for this, we missed you at spring break," I told him, leaning away so I could see his face as he held me up.

"Me too, I wish I could have been there."

"Sure you do. I'll bet that whole time you were on that beach in Fiji, you were really wishing you were swimming in the ice cold lake and sleeping on the rock hard mattresses in the twin room." I told him sarcastically as he put me down.

"I'm not kidding. Fiji was actually pretty boring compared to the cabin. And speaking of the cabin, I suppose we better get going. There won't be any beer left by the time we get up there."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem. Jasper and Emmett went to Costco last night and now Jasper's truck bed is half full of cheap beer. There's so much of it, you guys couldn't drink it all if you tried."

"I don't know about that, Swan. We are talking about Jazz and Em. Plus, I heard Eric and Tyler were coming up. And what about Jake and Sam?"

I stared into space, considering that seriously for a second. "Yeah, you're right. We better go."

"You want me to drive?" Edward asked, hesitating before getting into the passenger's side.

"Sure, if you want to."

"I'd be happy to. I slept on the plane; I'm not tired at all."

He came over to the driver's side and I went back around and got into the passenger's seat. It was kind of comical watching him try to fold his body into the seat that was adjusted for me to reach to the pedals and I laughed at him a bit.

"Shut up, Swan. It's not my fault you're child-sized." He swept his hand around under the seat looking for the lever to move the seat back.

"What? I'm not child-sized! It's not _my_ fault that _you're_ a giant!"

"I'm not a giant. I'd guess six-two is closer to the norm for guys than five-one is for girls."

"Hey! I'm five-one and a half!" I punched him in the side of the arm but he knew I wasn't serious. The guys had been teasing me about my height – or lack thereof – for as long as I could remember.

Edward pulled into the line of traffic and I tuned the radio to the channel I always used for the FM transmitter I had hooked up to my iPod. I laid my chair back as far as it would go, which wasn't too far considering the amount of stuff in the back, and listened to the slow waltz pattern of the song that played. Between the soft voice of the singer on the track, the warmth from the air conditioning vents against my legs and the spicy smell of Edward's cologne in the air, I was asleep before we even hit the interstate.

#CF#

When I woke up, it was because Edward had stopped the car in the driveway at the cabin. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, feeling groggy from the three hour "nap", if that's what it could even be called when it's three hours long.

"I'm so sorry I slept that whole time! You could have woken me up, you know. That must have been very boring for you."

"Nah, it was okay," Edward smiled at me. "It gave me some time to think about things."

A look of sadness passed over his face, but it was gone just as quickly.

"Besides, you always have interesting things to say when you talk in your sleep." One side of his mouth crept up into a grin.

"My life is very boring, Edward. I doubt it could have been that interesting."

As we got out of the car, I prayed to God I was right.

#CF#

One of the best things about the cabin was that there was nowhere to go and not much to do for the whole weekend. I never got more reading done than when we were spending a weekend up there. At the same time, out of all the times I'd gotten drunk in the few short months since I'd turned twenty-one (and okay, the couple of years before that, but that's not something we talk about, me being the police chief's daughter and all), I'd never been more hammered than when we were at the cabin. If you were going to get absolutely shit-faced, it was definitely the place to do it. You had no reason to leave, all the snack food you could want, and it was pretty quiet during the day – perfect for sleeping off a hangover.

Walking into the cabin, it was very apparent that they had indeed started the party without us. The table was already littered with empty cans and red party cups and a bowl on the island in the kitchen held a mixture of (judging by the empty containers surrounding it) two bottles of vodka, cranberry juice, powdered lemonade and one of those frozen cans of tropical fruit juice that you have to add water to. I supposed that in this case, the vodka served in the water's place. I leaned over to sniff it and scrunched my nose up a bit.

"Doesn't smell good?" Edward asked, coming over to investigate after placing our bags in the only empty room that was left. As some of the only single people left in the group, we knew before getting here that we'd be in the 'twin room', aptly named because of the two twin-sized beds that occupied it.

"It smells like a hangover. Steer clear of that shit."

"Yeah, good plan," Edward agreed as he opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer. He twisted the top off of each and handed one to me. "Let's get this party started," he clinked the neck of his bottle against mine and started downstairs to where, judging by the hysterical laughter and shouts coming from up the stairs, everyone else was hanging out.

Emmett and Rosalie were in a heated battle of beer pong against Jasper and Alice while Angela, Ben, Mike, Jessica, Tanya, Eric, Jake, Sam, Leah and Seth were in the middle of their own flip cup tournament.

"Jesus, it's like a regular beer Olympics down here," I commented as I stepped over to the flip cup table just as one round finished.

"Bella! I thought you guys would never make it!" Leah hugged me as I came to stand beside her. She was clearly drunk already, because non-drunk Leah was definitely _not_ a hugger.

"I'm glad you and Seth could come up – I thought you guys had to go to your grandma's house this weekend."

"Nah, she cancelled on us," Seth told me with a huge grin on his face. "She went on some old-people cruise instead."

"Edwaaaarrrd!" Tanya shrieked out as she stumbled over to him and tossed her arms around his neck, hanging off of him and spilling some of whatever was in her cup down the back of his sweatshirt. "I'm sooooo glad you came! I missed you sooooo much!"

I shook my head and tipped back my beer. I was going to have to be really drunk if I was going to have to listen to that all night.

#CF#

By the time ten o'clock rolled around, we'd already been drinking for about four hours and all I wanted to do was pass out. I went past the downstairs bedroom where Jake, Sam and Seth were already snoring on the king sized bed, haphazardly covered in blankets pulled from the linen closet, while Seth and Eric slept on the floor. I found my way into my bed in the twin room, shoved my bags onto the floor and collapsed on the bed nearest the window without bothering to wash my face, brush my teeth or even change my clothes. Edward came in a few seconds later and began tossing his own things off of his bed. I wasn't even awake long enough to remember him lying down.

The next time I opened my eyes, it was still dark. I glanced over at the clock on the night table between the two beds and saw that it was only just past two in the morning. I sat up and started to get off of the bed to go into the bathroom when I noticed that Edward wasn't in his bed. Figuring he'd probably gotten up to use the bathroom too, I made my way out into the hall and was surprised to see the bathroom vacant at the end of the hall. Knowing that Edward was sometimes a bit of an insomniac, I tip-toed out towards the living room to see if he might be out there watching TV. I knew that Tanya and Leah were sleeping on the couches out there, but they were both pretty drunk when they went to sleep and weren't likely to wake up if the TV was turned on.

I rounded the corner to the living room and froze in horror at what I saw there. Edward was seated on the couch where Tanya had been sleeping, but she sure as hell wasn't sleeping any more. She sat on his lap, hands on his shoulders and lips firmly glued to his face. I backed away slowly until I was out of sight and did the only rational thing I could think to do – I scurried down the hall, looking for Alice. The door to her and Jasper's room was closed and I tried the knob and found it wasn't locked. I closed my eyes and slipped into the room, shutting the door behind me.

"Alice! Alice, wake up! I just saw something disturbing!" I whispered as loudly as possible.

I heard stirring and a few grumbles that I couldn't make out.

"Bella?" Jasper's groggy voice whispered back. "What are you doing?"

"Are you guys decent? Can I open my eyes?"

"Yeah. What the hell is going on?" Alice chimed in.

I opened my eyes and went over to the bed. "I woke up and went to use the bathroom but Edward wasn't in his bed and I went out to the living room to look for him and he was out there and so was Tanya and she was _on top of him_ and they were in a full-fledged make-out session and some things can't be unseen, you know?"

"Whoa. Wait a second. Slow down. Edward and Tanya are currently making out in the living room. That's what you're telling me?" Alice asked.

"Yes!"

"Oh man. He's going to regret that one," Jasper muttered then laid back down. "Let's just hope he's drunk enough that he doesn't remember it tomorrow."

"What? You can't let him do this! He's dating Charlotte, he's going to guilt trip himself into oblivion after this!"

"Bella, go back to bed. _I_ can let him do whatever he wants. And besides, he's on a break with Charlotte."

"Jasper!" I whispered back, shaking his arm. "Come on!"

"Bella, I suggest you go back to bed and ask yourself why you care so much." Jasper rolled over, turning away from me.

Alice patted my arm and sighed. "Jasper's right, sweetie."

Resigned, I went back into my room, laid down, and tried not to think about what was happening out in the living room.

The next morning when I woke up, Edward was in his bed again and showed no sign of being anywhere close to waking up. I rolled out of bed and went into the kitchen where Tanya was already regaling Rosalie and Angela with stories of her late night escapades, wearing one of the smuggest grins I'd seen in I don't know how long.

I had to listen to a recounting of that story two more times that morning. Back then, I thought I'd go crazy if I heard it mentioned one more time. It was a drunken make-out, it's not like he proposed to her. But by the way Tanya told it, you'd have thought he had.

Just as Jasper had hoped for Edward, he didn't remember what had happened that night, at least not much of it. He remembered that it had happened, in theory, but didn't remember specific details. It wasn't until the ride home that I told him the story as it had been relayed to me by Tanya and for the first time in our long friendship, I saw Edward's face turn red with embarrassment. He told me how he hadn't been himself and swore up and down that he would never drink that much again. He told me how he didn't mean to lead Tanya on (although I suspected she had taken advantage of the situation more than she let on) and how if he was ever getting back together with Charlotte, he'd have to tell her about it. He begged me not to think he was a horrible person.

I didn't think he was a horrible person, and I told him so, but other than that, I didn't know what to say. I knew he'd feel guilty about it, just like I told Jasper and Alice, and I actually felt a little bad for him.

Four days after that weekend, Edward and Charlotte got back together, which was all fine and dandy for him. Tanya, on the other hand, was a different story. She felt "absolutely crushed" and "completely betrayed" (her words, not mine) that Edward would "make a move on her and then go back to _her_." I made the mistake of asking once if she thought Edward was really in his right mind when the whole thing happened. I knew he wasn't, I just wasn't entirely sure that she realized it. She'd looked at me like I'd just stabbed her and ripped her heart out all in one fell swoop. She told Jessica that I had implied that Edward had to have been out of his mind to make out with her and when Jessica asked me about it, I didn't deny that I had. Tanya and I had never gotten along perfectly, but after that conversation, it seemed like she didn't even try to like me.

#CF#

A whole year went by before my twice-weekly phone calls with Edward started happening more frequently and lasting much longer that I realized that something wasn't quite right.

"Edward, is everything okay with you and Charlotte?" I asked him one night after he'd called me for the sixth night in a row. He'd been particularly stressed out with the internship he'd been doing – he was convinced that his boss hated him and that it was going to ruin his chances of getting a good reference when he went to look for a full-time job after graduation.

He sighed heavily and I could just see him running his hand through is hair in the way he did when he was stressed out, sending it into an even bigger state of chaos than it was in naturally.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, we've talked every night this week – which is fine," I added quickly, not wanting him to think I didn't like talking to him, "but I just wonder why you aren't talking to Charlotte about this stuff."

"You're my best friend, Bella. I want to talk to you about it."

"Okay…it's just that, you guys have been talking about marriage and stuff, right? Shouldn't _she_ be your best friend?"

The line was silent.

"Edward, do you want to marry Charlotte?"

More silence.

"Edward…do you _love_ Charlotte?" I asked, beginning to wonder if the line had gone dead. I pulled the phone away from my ear momentarily to see the call timer still counting. He was still there.

"No. I don't."

I released a breath and realized I hadn't even known I was holding it.

#CF#

Edward moved back two months after we graduated from college. He'd broken up with Charlotte the day after our conversation where I'd asked him if he loved her and even though it's not like I wanted Charlotte to be hurt, Edward's happiness was all I cared about. She'd given him a hard time about it, screaming that he'd wasted all of her best years. When I went to get him at the airport, he didn't even say hello – he just picked me up and buried his face in my hair, squeezing me tight enough that eventually, I had to kick my legs a little and remind him that I needed to breathe. I'd seen him a couple of times over that year, but the stress showed in his face and he somehow looked a little older and a little haggard, even though he was still strikingly handsome. I think Edward's years away from home had been harder than he'd wanted us to think and he just needed to be somewhere comfortable again.

Of course, Tanya was beside herself with joy that Edward was coming back for good. You could practically see the wheels in her head turning, thinking of ways to make him fall for her and make up for all that alleged heart breaking he'd done that night at the cabin.

We quickly planned a cabin trip in honor of Edward's return home. The weather wasn't supposed to be great – horrible actually – so swimming was out. We'd pretty much be inside the whole time, so we planned to watch some movies, play cards and maybe do a puzzle or something.

"I don't care what we do, as long as it doesn't involve that evil vodka-cranberry-powdered shit, whatever the hell it was," Edward announced during an impromptu planning session we'd had while out to dinner a few nights before we left. "It makes bad things happen."

"I'll say," Alice agreed. "Things that haunt you, or haunt your female friends, I should say."

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Edward," Rosalie joined in. "Tanya's been talking about that for a year. _A year_. Do you even understand how long that is? You guys didn't even bang. Not that she doesn't have plans for that." Rose raised an eyebrow at Edward.

"Hear that, Edward?" Emmett laughed through a mouthful of chicken wings. "Tanya wants to play hide-the-salami with you."

"_Hide-the-salami_? Are you fucking kidding me?" Alice shrieked, making gagging motions.

"No, seriously dude, she wants your cock," Emmett said, tossing a chicken bone back onto his plate.

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks," Edward grimaced.

"Sleeping arrangement the same as usual?" Angela asked, looking up from her phone where she was making a grocery list for the trip.

"Yeah. Angela and Ben in the master, me and Jasper in the back room, Jess and Mike downstairs, Rose and Emmett in the queen. Tanya on the couch, Bella and Edward in the twin room," Alice listed off the sleeping arrangements. I'm not sure why we even discussed them; they'd been the same for at least the last four years. Except, I should have known Tanya would have another plan.

#CF#

It took us almost forty-five minutes longer to get to the cabin than usual. The rain had gone from heavy to torrential downpour once we got higher in the mountains and I lost my trail on the boys when I slowed down because I could barely see five feet in front of me. When we finally pulled up, Emmett and Edward were already parked, running back and forth between the covered porch and the cars, unloading our stuff as fast as they could. Angela and Ben had come up earlier in the day and Angela was waiting on the porch, taking things the boys left there inside.

"Okay, I'm going to pop the trunk, everybody grab as much stuff as you can, whether it's yours or not, and just run." They all nodded and we flung open our doors, jumping out and reaching into the trunk like a bunch of mad women at a once yearly wedding dress tag sale.

In the short twenty five or thirty feet between the porch and where I'd parked my car, my hair got soaked and was plastered to my face. I could practically feel my mascara running. I kicked off my sneakers at the door and went straight for the twin room. I stopped short at the door when I saw that the twin room was no longer the twin room. It was more of a single double bed room. Edward's duffle bag was already at the end of the bed. Unfortunately, so was Tanya's. In the two minutes she'd been inside before me, she'd already tried to take what was mine. I'd had enough. I could suffer through her make-out session sob stories, but I wasn't going to stand back and let her kick me out of my claimed sleeping spot.

Angela came up behind me as I stood at the threshold of the door and looked into the room with me.

"I know. I didn't know about this either. My mom said they wanted to get a more comfortable bed, and since this it's usually just my brother in here when our family comes up here they thought they only needed one."

"It's cool, Ang. It's not exactly what I'm concerned about."

I walked over to the bed, set my stuff on it, and removed Tanya's just as she was walking by.

"Hey!" She skidded to a halt outside the door. "That's my stuff."

"I know," I replied, not looking at her as I rummaged through my bag for my bathroom kit. "And it was sitting on my bed. I don't care if you leave it in here while we're all watching movies or whatever, but I'm sleeping here."

She glared at me but didn't argue. No matter how transparent her plan was, she was under the impression that she was being pretty stealthy and I'm sure she didn't want to blow her cover.

I took my bathroom kit and some lounge pants down the hall and put my soaked hair into a ponytail, wiped the makeup from under my eyes and changed out of my jeans. It was only four o'clock but there was no reason not to be comfortable. At the rate it was raining, we definitely weren't going outside anytime soon.

When I returned to the living room, I saw that I wasn't the only one who had decided to get comfortable. Jasper and Emmett were both wearing plaid flannel pants, Rosalie had on her yoga pants and was drowning in one of Emmett's sweatshirts and Edward had changed into sweatpants and one of his old soccer jerseys that had "CULLEN" emblazoned on the back above the number. They were just dealing out a hand of Texas Hold-em when I sat down at the table with a huge bag of barbeque chips I'd swiped off the counter. There was a beer waiting for me at my place and Edward reached over and twisted the top off as I sat down.

I did pretty well for a long time and by the time I lost all of my chips to Ben almost three hours later, I was two beers and a half a bag of barbeque chips down. I added my five dollars to the perpetual I.O.U. list we had going (Angela was the keeper of the list and had been recording winnings on her phone) and got up to take a bathroom break.

"Hey, Bella! What movie do you want to watch?" Jessica called as I walked down the hall.

"Whatever. I don't really care," I called back to her as I closed the bathroom door.

When I came back down the hall, I noticed that Tanya had moved her stuff out of my room. _Good_, I thought, _don't need her to have an excuse to come in and flirt with him while I'm trying to sleep_.

We watched a comedy that was one of our favorites, speaking all of the punch lines out loud and laughing like we hadn't already heard them a million times. It was late when it finished, but not late enough to go to bed yet so we took a break to refill the snack bowls and refresh our drinks.

"Anybody have any preferences for what we watch next?" Mike asked while he flipped through the DVDs we'd brought up.

"Whatever's good, I still don't have a preference," I said and everyone else agreed with me.

Jessica got up and put a DVD into the player while everyone claimed their places to sit and I flopped down on the far end of one of the couches next to Alice and Jasper. The lights had all been turned off and the TV screen was at that point where nothing has started yet and it's still black. The wind outside was wild and I could hear one of the wind chimes on the deck going crazy as it blew back and forth in the maelstrom. The rain pelted the windows hard in sheets, harder when a gust of wind came off of the lake, pushing the drops onto the glass.

As the title credits began on the movie, I immediately regretted saying I didn't care what we watched. Of course they would pick the most terrifying movie I'd ever seen in my life. _Of course_.

It was a movie where a group of people (you know, sort of like this one), were staying in a cabin (again, much like this one) and were randomly picked to be terrorized by an evil group of killers. Awesome. Maybe if I just closed my eyes and laid my head back, I'd drift off to sleep and I could miss the whole thing. I decided that was a good tactic and had only closed my eyes for a few minutes when all of a sudden –

BANG!

"AHHHHHH!" A collective girly scream erupted around the room.

BANG! BANG!

"AHHHH!"

There were a few minutes of mayhem while the girls (and maybe Mike, too) scrambled together on one couch before Emmett's voice boomed over our screams.

"Cool it! It's just the door to the connected shed. It's blowing around in the wind. See?" He pointed out the window where he'd peeled back the curtains. We took turns looking and when we were all satisfied that was the cause of the noise, we settled back in to finish the movie.

Half-way through I was thinking I'd just feign illness and go to bed and read a book or something to distract me from the movie when I happened to glance over at Tanya, who was conveniently seated next to Edward, during a part where a killer jumps out at an unsuspecting police officer who answers the emergency call of one of the people in the cabin. As the killer jumped out, Tanya yelped and grabbed onto Edward's arm, burying her face into the crook of his neck. _What an idiot_. She's seen this movie. We've all seen this movie. She knew that was going to happen.

I stood up from the couch and Alice looked up at me.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to read for a bit, I'm not really into this movie," I told her.

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight, Bella," chimed a chorus from around the living room.

"Sweet dreams," Tanya said in a sickeningly sweet high voice. I couldn't help but think she didn't really mean it.

#CF#

I'd been reading for over an hour when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," I called without looking up from my book. Edward came into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Movie's over?" I asked as he bent over his bag, rummaging through it before he pulled out a book of his own, his contact case and his thick black rimmed glasses.

"Yeah. Everybody went to bed." He came over to the bed and sat on the edge, setting his book and glasses down before he screwed the lids off of the contact case and took the contacts out of his eyes. He raised his arms and grabbed hold of the neck of his old soccer jersey and I watched the muscles in his back flex as he lifted it over his head and flung it toward his bag in the corner.

"Do you mind if I read for a little bit?" he asked softly as he climbed under the covers and scooted down until he was almost lying down.

"No, go ahead. I've got a bit of this chapter left. That gate banging around out there has been driving me a little crazy so I haven't finished this chapter yet."

"It is kind of loud, isn't it? I can't even remember the last time it's rained this hard. I'll be shocked if my car hasn't washed away by morning." He slipped his glasses on and opened his book, resting it against his chest as he began to read.

He couldn't have been through more than a few pages when he sighed and put his book down, slipped his glasses off and turned on his side, facing me.

"What are you reading?" he asked, looking up at me. His eyes seemed a darker shade of green in the dim light given off by the bedside lamp and the bronze in his hair stood out as he raked his fingers through it.

I shrugged. "Pride and Prejudice."

"Will you read to me?" he asked.

"Read to you?" I smiled down at him. "Why?"

"I don't know. I just want to hear your voice. I've missed you, Bella."

"But you've seen me almost every day for two weeks. And we've talked on the phone almost every day for months."

"I know. I just…I don't really know what to say, I guess. I missed you so much while I was gone. I don't think I've ever really told you that. I feel like I've got time to make up."

His fingers toyed with the edge of the baggy t-shirt I was wearing and he looked down at them like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look up. I closed my book and laid it on the night table.

"Look at me."

When he turned his eyes toward mine, I saw something there that I wasn't used to seeing – uncertainty. My confident, usually cocky Edward was unsure about something.

"I missed you too, Edward," I whispered.

He sat up and moved in close beside me, turning a little to face me.

"I'm not sure if you missed me as much as I missed you. I mean, I'd hope you did. But I'm not sure if you did." His brow was furrowed a little and his eyes seemed to search my face for understanding about what he was talking about.

"Can we stop with the euphemisms? Are you telling me you have feelings for me, Edward?"

"Yeah. I think that _is_ what I'm saying." His expression was pained as though he might break into an anxiety attack at any moment.

"Like, more than best friend feelings?"

He nodded.

And then, because I couldn't stop myself, I laughed. Hysterically. I mean, there were tears streaming down my face.

"Well, you don't have to be mean about it." Edward's voice broke through my little laughing fit and he scowled at me.

"Oh! No, I didn't mean it like that!"

The scowl dropped from his face. "What?"

"Edward, I think I have feelings for you, too."

"You do? Then why are you laughing?"

"I don't even know. I think because if I didn't laugh I'd have to cry. That night, last year, when I saw you with Tanya, it freaked me out. Jasper told me to go to bed and think about why I cared. I didn't have to think about it too long. I've spent the last year wanting to strangle Tanya because she wouldn't fucking stop talking about making out with you."

"Jesus Christ, I'm never going to live that down."

"Probably not."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

I shrugged. "You were with Charlotte. I wasn't going to ruin that."

Edward nodded took my hand in his own.

"Can we not talk about Charlotte and Tanya now?"

"Of course."

"Can I kiss you?"

"Please do."

He leaned over and pulled the chain on the lamp, surrounding us in darkness. Then, he moved forward, right in front of me, his lips poised just in front of mine. I held my breath thinking that this was the make or break moment. This was when it either felt wrong and awkward and we agreed never to speak of this again, or it felt right and perfect and like the one thing we'd been waiting for all of these years.

It was the latter, definitely the latter. When his fingers curled around the base of my neck, pulling me gently toward him, his soft lips connected firmly with my own and the stubble on his sharp jaw rubbed against my skin with a friction that I'd been craving without even knowing it. I opened my mouth to let him in, moaning a bit when the taste of him hit me, and crawled further into his lap, laying my own thighs over the top of his and wrapping my arms around his neck.

His hands wandered from where they buried in my hair and against my back, his finger tips grazing the sides of my breasts through my t-shirt and running down under the hem where they bunched the fabric and began to raise it upwards.

"Is this okay?" Edward asked breathily, pulling his lips from my own.

I answered him by reaching down and pulling it up and over my head. Then, realizing how quickly this was moving, I brought my hands up to cover my naked breasts, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious now that they were on display.

"What are you covering yourself for?" he asked me as he gazed at me with lust-filled eyes, reaching his long fingers out to brush against the undersides as I held them up.

"I'm suddenly afraid you won't like them," I told him, completely honestly. "They're not quite as perky as they look in my bra, you know."

"I don't care."

"And also, I think my nipples are abnormally small."

He laughed. "You're strange, you know that?" He leaned forward and kissed the side of my mouth.

"Well, I'm just saying. I didn't exactly expect this so I couldn't get any sexy lingerie or, you know, whatever."

"Are you going to let me see them or not?"

I removed my hands, slowly, letting them rest in my lap.

Edward just stared for a few moments before he finally reached out and took my left breast in his hand, brushing his thumb over the hardened tip of my nipple. He wrapped his free hand around my back, pulling me further onto his lap where I could feel his erection straining against his sweatpants. I ground myself onto his lap as he brought his face down to my chest and took the nipple he'd been playing with into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the tip and wrapping his lips around it to suck gently. My hands came up into his hair, pressing his face to me as I arched against him and mewled quiet moans of pleasure.

"Take these off," Edward whispered against my lips, tugging on the waist band of my pajama shorts and moving his hand around to rub me in the front where they'd grown damp from the dry humping I'd being doing while he played with my nipples.

"Only if you lose the sweatpants and whatever else you've got on under there." I scooted back off of his lap and lifted my bottom off of the bed, slipping my shorts and underwear over my legs and tossing them onto the floor.

"God, Bella. You're so fucking beautiful," Edward whispered, reaching out to touch my leg and running up to my inner thigh, stopping just short of where I wanted to feel him the most. He took his time, gazing over me in silence with the pounding rain beating on the roof above us.

When he finally stood up he hooked his fingers in the band of his sweatpants and hesitated for a moment.

"I have a condom in my bag, Bella. I didn't know if I should get it. I mean, I didn't know if you'd want to go that far. It's okay if you don't."

I held in a laugh and decided it was best not to point out that he'd already gotten me naked and sucked on my tits in a matter of minutes. I was clearly a willing participant. Besides, Edward was my best friend – he knew I was no nun. This new, insecure side of Edward was so fucking cute and I couldn't help but feel a little flattered that he was overly concerned about how things went tonight.

"Get the condom, Edward."

He practically dove for his bag, and I could barely see him in the corner of the room, throwing his stuff out and digging around until he jumped back up again, having found what he was looking for. When he was back next to the bed where I could see him and shoved off his sweatpants and boxers, I tried not to have an audible reaction. It's not like his cock was the biggest one I'd ever seen. It was of average thickness and maybe only slightly more than average length. But God, was it fucking beautiful. It was perfectly straight and perfectly proportioned and just fucking perfect. I watched with rapt attention as he ripped the condom wrapper with his teeth and rolled the latex over himself. He crawled over me and my legs fell open, creating space for him between my thighs while I wrapped my arms around his neck and played with the little hairs at the nape of his neck. He kissed me again, this time with more urgency than before and thrust his hips a little, sliding his erection against me and coating himself with the moisture between my legs. He pulled away from me and held himself above me on his forearms.

"Are you sure?" His eyes searched my face for any sign that I didn't want this. I wasn't going to give him any.

"Absolutely."

He reached down and lifted his hips, pressing the tip of his cock into me before bringing his arm back up to support himself and pressing his lips against mine as he sunk all the way into me. I sucked in a breath that ended in a sort of high pitched moan into his mouth as his hips connected fully with mine.

"Are you a screamer?" Edward asked, keeping still inside of me as I sucked in breaths quickly.

"Not usually, but I might be with you," I replied and I could feel his smile against my lips. He pulled back out slowly, only to push back in with a speed that seemed to surprise me even though I was expecting it. He did it a few more times, with increasing speed, until the headboard was banging against the wall and the only thing that was keeping my shrieks from reaching the ears of the other people in the cabin were my hands clamped tightly over my mouth.

The pressure building up inside of me was making me feel frantic and crazed – Edward wore a look of concentration and I thought he was probably trying to hold off until I got mine.

"I'm close, baby," I told him as I tried to open my legs wider, get closer. "Let me be on top."

Edward flipped us over and I sunk back down onto him rattling the headboard a couple more times, ready to ride him like there was no tomorrow while he fingered my clit when Tanya's voice called out from the living room.

"Jesus Christ! Will someone go down and shut that fucking gate? It's driving me crazy!"

I froze then collapsed on Edward's chest, giggling like mad.

"It's not funny, Bella!" Edward said, even though I could hear the humor in his voice. "I'm not getting cock blocked by our stupid friends. Get on the floor."

"What? Why the floor?"

"Because I'm going to make you come so hard you'll see stars and I don't need any more interruptions."

Hmm. Confident Edward was back, and he didn't have to tell me twice. I raised myself off of him, threw a pillow on the floor and laid down on it.

"Not like that. Get on your knees and lay your head down. You might want to use that pillow for a little noise control."

I quickly turned over, raising my ass in the air and pressing my breasts against the floor. I watched Edward walk around and kneel behind me, and felt him nudge my legs a little further apart with his own knees. He pressed against me, stroking the small of my back before running his hands down and wrapping his fingers around my thighs.

"You ready?" He pulled away a bit and I felt him lining himself up.

I nodded against the pillow and pressed my face into it, bracing myself for when he finally sunk in.

The scream that left my lips was completely involuntary and was muted by the pillow as Edward slammed into me, pulling my hips back against him, his balls slapping against my clit. His cock was so deep I didn't think he could go any further if he tried. He pulled out slowly, letting me feel every inch before he reached around and began toying with my clit then pushed himself back in to the hilt. He began a fast past, pounding against me and shoving my knees across the carpet. Our sweaty bodies slapped together as the tightness in my belly began to wind back up and I could feel the walls of my pussy tighten around him with every stroke.

"That's it, baby. Come on my cock," Edward whispered into my ear as he leaned over me, the light hair on his chest tickling the skin on my back.

I'd never been one to enjoy dirty talk, but clearly, I didn't know what I was missing. Because I didn't think I'd ever heard anything more erotic in my entire life than those filthy words coming out of Edward Cullen's mouth.

With one last flick against my clit, the euphoria over took me and my body sung as my pussy fluttered around Edward's cock, gripping it like it never wanted to let go. I was only barely aware of Edwards muffled grunt into the crook of my neck as he stilled himself deep inside of me. Slight tremors ran through his muscles and he let out a string of unintelligible mumbles before he clutched me to him and we collapsed on the floor with my back against his chest and his knees tucked behind my own.

After a few moments, he pulled himself from my body and stood up, walking across the room to dispose of the condom in a ridiculously huge wad of tissue he'd taken from the vanity table.

"Do you always ball those up in five pounds of Kleenex before you throw them away?" I teased from my place on the floor.

He shrugged and stood over me, still naked as the day he was born.

"Come up into bed. You'll get cold down there."

"I don't think I can move."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," he grinned as he crouched down and slipped one arm underneath my back and the other beneath my knees.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, even though it was pretty clear.

"I'm lifting you onto the bed. You said you couldn't move." He grunted a little as he lifted me, moving me onto the mattress.

"See? I'm too heavy. I heard that exertion when you tried to lift me." I wrapped my arms around his neck as he slid into bed beside me and pulled me against him.

"I didn't _try_ to lift you, I _did_ lift you. You're not that heavy." He buried his nose in my hair and I could feel his warm breath against my ear. "Go to sleep, Bella."

I turned to face away from him, tangled my legs in his and pulled his arm around me to rest under my boobs. He sighed and the warm air rushed over my neck. After a few minutes, his breathing was almost even, he was almost asleep.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"Does this feel…weird…to you?" His arm stiffened around me and he leaned his head back a bit.

"No. Does it feel weird to you?"

He was my best friend. We'd known each other since we were ten years old. I'd told him about other guys I'd slept with like I would have told any of the girls. I'd listened to him talk about all of his girlfriends and flings like I was one of the guys. His naked body was completely pressed up against my own, I'd known for the last forty five minutes that he had feelings for me and we'd just spent the last half an hour of that fucking like mad. It probably should have felt weird. But it didn't.

"No. Not at all."

His arm relaxed against me again and I covered it with my own, lacing our fingers together. It was one of the best nights of sleep I'd ever had.

#CF#

I was surprised to wake up with a bright stream of sunlight shining on my face through the crack in the curtains. With the way it was raining last night, you'd have thought it would never stop. Edward and I hadn't moved all night and I stretched my arms and legs out, dislodging his arm from around my ribcage. I turned face down and Edward stirred next to me, rubbing himself up against my right side.

"I'd ask if that was a gun in your pocket, but since you don't have pockets I guess you're just happy to see me." I nudged him with my shoulder and that irresistible crooked grin crept onto his face while he kept his eyes scrunched closed.

"Oh, I'm happy to see you alright," he finally opened his emerald eyes and pulled my face down to his for a kiss.

"Ew, morning breath," I giggled but made no attempt to move away from his lips.

"I've known you for thirteen years Swan. I know way grosser things about you than your morning breath."

_Knock, knock_. "Bella!" Alice whisper-yelled through the door. _Knock, knock_.

"Looks like you're going to have to take care of that yourself, buddy," I smirked and rolled out of the bed, slipping my oversized t-shirt on to answer the door.

I cracked the door, trying to block it with my body.

"Good morning, Alice. What is it?"

She narrowed her eyes at me and looked me up and down, then stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck around me. I knew my efforts to move in front of her were fruitless when a grin the size of Texas spread across her face.

"Fuck. Yes."

"Alice, don't say anything. At least not yet," I commanded her.

She just laughed and raised her hands above her head like she was talking to the heavens. "I knew it! I fucking knew it!"

"What did you want to tell me?"

"Ha! Breakfast is ready. God, this just made my day," she practically cackled, then skipped away back towards the kitchen.

I closed the door and looked back at Edward.

"I hope you weren't planning on keeping this a secret," I told him as I pulled on some panties and my sleep shorts.

"I don't want you to be a secret, Bella." He sat up and watched as I put my hair in a ponytail and found my slippers in my bag.

I went over and pecked him on the lips. "That's good. Because Alice knows. And also, I kind of like you. A lot. Although, you should know that Tanya is going to kill me."

I went out into the kitchen where Angela and Alice were busy flipping pancakes and scrambling eggs while everyone else sat around the table and wolfed down what they'd already made.

"Finally! I thought you'd never wake up," Rosalie chided.

"I don't know how you could have slept. That shed door was so loud and the wind was making all kinds of noises. It was creepy as shit. I swear to God, it was even making kind of a high pitched noise, almost like a scream at one point."

"Yeah. It was _almost _like a scream. I can't imagine what it would have been," Alice said, giving me eyes, with just _this much_ too much sarcasm in her voice.

"I was pretty tired, I fell asleep pretty fast," I said, sticking my head into the fridge for something, anything, so long as I didn't have to look at the group while my cheeks turned red.

Edward walked past me and up to the kitchen island to grab a plate, this time with what looked like the matching shorts to the soccer jersey he'd worn the day before and a plain white t-shirt. There was an angry red patch on each of his knees and I glanced down at my own to see that they were indeed matching.

"Edward! There's a chair over here if you want to sit down," Tanya called, waving her fork at the chair beside her.

Edward sighed but went to sit beside her, where she immediately inched her chair closer and tried to feed him a bite of a pancake she had on her plate, raving about how good it was as if he had not had pancakes before or an entire plate at his disposal in front of him. I watched the display in disgust, but a surprisingly lower level of disgust than I might have done yesterday. It was only a matter of time before everyone found out. Might as well let her have this last minute of fun.

I filled my plate and went over to the table, sitting on a stool that had been pulled up from the bar so that there'd be enough seats for everyone. I towered over most people and my legs were level with the table, but it was better than standing.

"What happened to your knees?" Tanya asked with a look of slight disgust on her face. "It looks like you have some kind of rash or something."

Everyone turned to look at me and I lifted a forkful of eggs to my mouth.

Rosalie raised an eyebrow at me with a sly grin on her face. "If I'm not mistaken, I'd guess that was rug burn."

"Bingo," I pointed at her and shoved a piece of bacon into my mouth.

Everyone at the table stopped and stared at me, probably wondering why I would have rug burn, when a look of understanding dawned on Emmett's face. He ducked his head underneath the table and when he came back up he had the biggest, shit-eating grin on his face. It occurred to me that I should be disturbed that Rose and Emmett would have guessed the source of the red marks so easily, but I decided not to think about it.

"Nice!" He practically yelled at Edward.

"Ooohhh, Bella! You slut, you!" Angela teased.

"Finally. I've been waiting for you two to get together since fifth grade," Ben piped up.

I couldn't help but grin.

Sure, I'd have to endure the teasing from the guys, but I'd grown up with them and I was used to their vulgar ways. Hell, most of their vulgar ways had rubbed off on me. They'd get it out of their systems and then they'd stop and it would just be the way things were. Bella and Edward would be something that just went together, just like Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rose or Ben and Angela.

Besides, I was guessing the shell-shocked look on Tanya's face might have meant she was realizing that the banging she heard last night wasn't the shed gate in the storm. And _that_ – that was totally worth a few cat calls.

#############################

**Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think…**


	2. Chapter 2: Two Years Later

**Two Years Later**

"Does anyone even remember the last time we had a girls' weekend?"

I consider Angela's question and realize that I don't remember, not exactly. I know it was sometime around a year after Edward and I started dating because it was right around the time the two of us moved in together and I don't think we've spent a weekend apart since then. At least, not until a month ago when he started a six week internship in Los Angeles. I didn't think it would have been that big of a deal - we'd lived apart for four years during college and even though I did miss him, it was tolerable. Turns out, when best friend becomes boyfriend and you go from sleeping with someone you love to sleeping alone every night, things aren't as easy. I have two weeks left before he comes back and I'm looking forward to the weekend with the girls to ease a bit of the loneliness I feel in Edward's absence.

"I think it was the winter before last." Rose's voice pulls me out of my head, confirming my own recollection that it had been far too long since we'd done this. "It was when Emmett and Jasper went on that road trip to see Edward at school."

"Ha! How could I forget that?" Alice cackles, "Tanya bitched about them going down there without us."

"I think it was more bitching about them going down there without her. Not us, just her," Angela says and Rose scoffs.

"I have to say, I'm rather surprised Tanya's coming this weekend. I mean, it's not like there's anything in it for her. Edward won't be there for her to oogle. Sorry, Bella."

"It's okay," I say to Rosalie from my place in the passenger's seat. I never harbored any illusions that Edward and I becoming a couple would curb Tanya's lust for him. Hell, she was still refusing to accept the fact that we were a couple at all. In her defense, if a defense should exist, Edward and I didn't really act all that differently in front of our friends than we did before that night at the cabin almost two years ago. I wasn't the most publicly affectionate person and aside from a quiet 'I love you' or peck on the lips here or there from Edward, the things that defined us as couple happened behind closed doors. I suppose she still had hope that things would go south between us.

"Why did we invite her again?" Alice asks. "I thought we'd established that she's a bitch, did we not?"

"I didn't mean to do it," Angela groaned as Alice glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "I was sending out the details and Ben was talking to me at the same time and I accidentally included her name in the group text. It was like reflex or something. I didn't even think she'd come since it's Bella's birthday and all. Sorry, Bella."

"Why does everyone keep apologizing to me? I know she doesn't like me. I know she's in love with my boyfriend. I just don't give a shit about either of those things. Seriously. I'm not concerned. Actually, strike that. I'm concerned about Jess having to ride up here with her."

"Well, she kind of dug her own grave on that one," Rosalie interjected. "She doesn't have to be so nice to her."

I turned in my seat to look at Rose. "You know, I don't expect anyone to shun Tanya on my behalf."

"That's big of you, Bells, but the girl wants your boyfriend's dick and she ain't shy about it. I get that you're not worried and that Edward would probably just as soon shoot himself than cheat on you but it's still disrespectful. So if you don't expect people to shun her on your behalf, I sure as hell do."

"You're a good friend, Rose." I smile at her and she smirks back at me.

"Eh. I try."

"I'm just glad it's not pouring down rain this time," Alice adds as she pulls into the cabin driveway. "Tanya's presence will be tolerated much easier if we're not stuck inside."

**CF**

There is one bar (or maybe it's more of a tavern) in a fifty mile radius of the cabin - the Scorpion. It's main patrons are grizzled old men with logger beards who mumble to each other in low, rough tones and chain smoke at the bar even though it's technically not legal to smoke inside in this state. We haven't exactly frequented the place but we've gone there on occasion with the boys, usually on longer cabin trips when people are tired of cooking and just want something to be made for us. I'm pretty sure the pizza they serve there is the worst in three counties but no matter - they have recently installed a karaoke machine which, along with cheap beer and no frat boys around to hit on us, is a winning combination.

On Saturday night, after a few pre-function shots at the cabin, the six of us cram into Alice's car with Angela taking her turn as designated driver. We're dressed in our most comfortable jeans and sweatshirts and I don't think anyone's wearing more makeup than a couple coats of mascara. When we pull up to the Scorpion, there are actually quite a few cars in the parking lot and the hum of chit-chat and laughter is floating across the muggy September air.

When we make it into the bar, it's the busiest I've ever seen it. There's a group of older women who all look like they still listen to Whitesnake on the regular gathered around the pool table and working hard to catch the attention of some guys who are younger than them but still somewhere around my dad's age. The karaoke machine is already up and running with the speakers blaring the intro to "Free Bird" while a guy holding a half-full beer in one hand and the microphone in the other closes his eyes and sways to the music like he's having some sort of Lynard Skynard spiritual experience. We saddle up to the bar where the bartender (who looks something like what I imagine Santa Clause would look like if he were a biker) nods at us.

"Hello, ladies, what can I get you?"

"PBR!" Tanya yells and Rose turns to glare at her.

"No. Since when did you become a hipster?" Rose turns to the bartender. "What do you have on tap?"

He runs through a list that's considerably bigger than I would have expected for a bar in the middle of nowhere and Rose orders a couple of pitchers.

Jess wastes no time in putting her name down for the next song and has just enough time to slam back half of her beer before she's up on stage belting out 'I Love Rock and Roll'.

A few drinks later, I am well past buzzed and made my way through 'Like a Prayer', a duet of 'Love Shack' with Rose and 'Semi-Charmed Life', which I was shocked to find I remembered without even looking at the screen. Alice is finishing up 'Friends in Low Places' and we're all about ready to go when I notice Tanya walk back in the door with a guy about our age, dressed in filthy coveralls who is blushing like crazy and grinning at Tanya like he just won the lottery. I hadn't even realized she left and peeling my eyes away from her and the guy who is now freely touching her ass is going to be next to impossible.

I feel the table vibrate a bit and grab Alice's phone to hold up in front of my face. The screen is lit up with Jasper's picture. I accept the call and chat with him while Alice finishes her song.

"Hey, Jasper," I say, continuing to watch the mating dance Tanya is currently doing at the bar.

"Bells? Where are you guys? It's pretty loud."

"The Scorpion. I'm pretty sure Tanya just hooked up with a miner," I blurt out.

"What?! I know you guys don't like her much but you should stop her. Don't you think her getting arrested would ruin your weekend?"

"What? Why would she get arrested?"

"Well, if the kid's parents find out..."

A kid? What the fuck is he talking about? I never said anything about a kid...oh. OH!

"Not a kid! A miner. Like, a guy who digs up coal for a living or some shit like that. I don't know if that's what he really does. It's a pretty good guess though."

Jasper is silent for a minute before he begin laughing hysterically. "I didn't know prospectors hung out at the Scorpion."

His laugh is infectious and pretty soon I'm laughing right along with him, holding my stomach as I double over. Alice pries her phone from my fingers and pretty soon she's cracking up too.

"Alright!" Angela shouts over the noise in the bar. "I think it's time we took this party back to the cabin, ladies!"

**CF**

It's probably the fact that I didn't eat much today and our dinner tonight consisted of cool ranch Doritos and a bowl of peanut butter M&Ms but the buzz we started at the bar doesn't feel like it's wearing off. We're all laying around in the living room, deciding what to do next. It's only ten o'clock - not nearly time for bed.

"Hey!" Jess yells over the hysterical giggling spurred by an impression of Emmett Rose was currently conducting on the couch. "Let's play a game!"

Multiple game suggestions and half and hour later, the six of us are gathered around the table crying with laughter over some of the things we were learning about each other. Nothing says 'girls weekend at the cabin' like a good old-fashioned dirty game of Loaded Questions.

"What's your favorite sex position?" Alice reads from the card then looks up as the rest of us giggle and begin to write our answers on our piece of paper.

"Alright! Time's up, give your papers to Bella," Alice announces and everyone hands their paper to me. I mix them up so Alice can't tell what order they were handed to me and begin to read them off.

"Okay. We've got doggy style, reverse cowgirl, the lotus, the ballerina and the dancer lift. Who said what?"

Alice taps her fingers against her lips for a moment. "Hmm. Reverse Cowgirl. Not too wild, but still a little dirty. Jess."

Jess pretends to be offended for a second before she giggles. "Yep, that was me."

"Doggy style - kind of impersonal. Tanya," Alice continues. I bark out a laugh and Tanya looks pissed.

"The lotus is too sweet for Rose..."

"Damn straight," Rose interjects and I scowl at her.

"Don't give her any clues!"

"She didn't," Alice says, "I knew it wasn't her. Bella is the lotus, Angela is the ballerina and Rose is the dancer lift, whatever the fuck that is."

"What makes you think it's me if you don't even know what it is?" Rose arches an eyebrow at Alice.

"If it involves lifting, it's got to be you. Have you seen the size of your boyfriend's biceps?"

"Well, wrong, wrong and wrong," I tell Alice, plunking down the last three answer sheets. "Angela said lotus, Rose said ballerina and I said dancer lift."

"Explain this dancer lift position to me," Alice takes another big swig of her gin and tonic then leans her chin on her upturned hand. "I've never heard of it."

I don't know why, but I'm suddenly a little bashful about explaining this to the group of them and I can feel my cheeks color with blush.

"Go on," Alice encourages with a flourish of her hand.

"Well, I don't know if that's what it's actually called. It's just the best name I can think of for it. It's like the dancer - you know, where you stand on one leg and he holds your other leg up under your knee with the crook of his elbow?"

"Continue," Rose nods at me.

"It's like that, only he holds up both legs - he lifts you up."

Their eyes widen as they consider this. Rose and Alice look intrigued, Tanya just looks jealous.

"Like against the wall?" Angela asks.

I shrug. "If you want, I guess you could. I just hold onto his shoulders."

Tanya has either had too much to drink or she is green with envy.

"Ooooh, Bella! Good for you! Edward's pretty lean, I wouldn't have thought he'd be so...talented...like that. I mean he's obviously no weakling, but holy shit!" Rose flashes me a wide grin and nudges me with her shoulder.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and and I pull it out to see Edward's crooked grin gracing the face of my phone. I hit accept and raise it to my ear.

"Speak of the devil."

"Uh oh. Do I even want to know what you're talking about?" Edward's deep voice comes over the line and I immediately feel a pang of missing him. Why I agreed to a full-weekend birthday trip without him is beyond me.

"Probably not. Boys don't want to know about girl talk."

Alice puts her mouth next to my ear and yells toward my phone. "Edward! Take Jasper to the gym with you, okay? Focus on upper body!"

"What? What is she talking about? And exactly how drunk is she?" Edward asks, clearly confused about why he should bring Jasper to the gym.

"Pretty drunk. Me too. I told them about my favorite sex position. I hope you're not embarrassed."

"Should I be?"

"NO!" I yell, probably too loudly, but it seems hard to control the volume of my voice right now. "I loooove it. That's why it's my favorite."

Everyone but Tanya cat calls me and Edward laughs.

"Well, we are pretty good at it."

I smile for him even though he can't see me.

"Hey - do you know what time it is?"

I shake my head. "No."

"It's after midnight. Happy birthday, babe. I love you."

Maybe it's the liquor but a pang of missing him hits me so hard that the tears spring to my eyes before I can stop them. I'm not a crier and even three sheets to the wind I realize how embarrassing this is.

"Oh! Oh no!" Alice rises from her chair and hurries around to hug me. "What's wrong, Bella? Don't cry, it'll be okay."

I keep my phone pressed against my face and lean into Alice, taking the comfort she offers.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Edward asks softly.

I just hiccup as the tears begin to roll down my face.

"Bella, can I talk to Alice?"

Alice is close enough to me that she can hear what Edward's saying through the phone and she pries it from my fingers to speak with Edward.

"Mmmhmm...yeah...mmmhmm," Alice mumbles her agreement with whatever Edward is saying before she ends the call and lays my phone on the table.

"I'm actually pretty tired," Alice says. "I'm going to bed, what do you say, Bella?"

"You guys don't have to go to bed just because I'm being lame!" The thought that I might have ruined the fun threatens to bring on a new round of tears.

"You're not being lame. I'm done for the night." Alice holds up her drink.

"Besides, anymore of this and I'm waking up with the mother of all hangovers tomorrow."

I follow Alice back to the bathroom where she hands me a make-up remover cloth and I wipe the streaked mascara from my face and brush my teeth before going back to the twin room.

"Do you want me to lay here with you for awhile?" Alice hesitates next to the bed.

"You don't have to."

"I didn't ask if I had to, I asked if you wanted me to."

I nod and she gets under the covers next to me.

"Happy birthday, Bells."

"Thanks, Ali." I reach out and take her hand.

"No problem."

**CF**

I expected to see Alice there next to me when I woke up but when my eyes finally flutter open I'm met with the vibrant emerald gaze that makes my heart want to both stop and beat right out of my chest at once.

"Edward." I breathe and just stare at him, stunned by his sudden appearance. He looks tired and there's more stubble covering his jaw than usual but his grin lights up his face. "Why aren't you in L.A.?"

"Well, all of us guys were going to come up here tonight and surprise you but when we talked last night I changed to the red eye flight and drove here straight from the airport."

"Oh my God. I ruined the surprise." And also sobbed in front of everyone just because I hadn't seen my boyfriend in a while. Pathetic.

"Nah, you didn't. You were surprised to see me here instead of Alice, right?"

"Yeah..."

He reaches toward me and wraps one hand around my waist while he slips the other underneath me and pulls me closer to him until we're eye level. My toes only reach to the very bottom of his knee caps and her jerks his leg back.

"Your toes are like ice," he teases but moves back, crushing us together as tightly as he can.

He presses his lips against mine and my fingers find their favorite place, buried in his thick, silky hair. I pour all of my longing and need for him into the kiss, opening my lips to let his tongue slide against my own, to welcome the taste of him in my mouth.

When we finally part, Edward disengages his arms from mine and pulls his white t-shirt over his head before unbuttoning my flannel pajama top until my breasts are exposed to him.

"I just want to feel you," he murmurs, ghosting his hands over my chest softly, reverently even, then pulls me back against him, tangling our legs together and burying his face in my hair.

"I missed you so bad, Bella," he whispers. "I can't sleep without you."

"Me neither." I breathe a sigh of relief at the touch of his warm skin against my own as I drift off to sleep just barely aware of the soft thump-thump of his heart beneath my breast.

**CF**

If not for the fact that I woke up nearly smothered in Edward's grasp, I could have probably been convinced that his appearance last night was a dream. For the amount that I drank, I felt only slightly groggy and really not too bad. Plus, there was a certain something digging into my thigh that I'd missed badly and having it right here in front of me was rather uplifting.

I pried one hand loose from between Edward and I and moved it down to where I could stroke him through the sweatpants he wore until he groaned softly and rolled over onto his back, pulling me with him. He cracked one eye open at me and smirked while I straddled his hips and sat up to fling my open pajama shirt the rest of the way off and lift my hips off of him just enough to shove his sweatpants and boxer briefs just clear of his erection.

He raises an eyebrow at me, grunting softly as I take him into one hand and shove my panties to the side with the other.

"Is this okay?" I ask him, hoping to God he doesn't need romance right now. I need to feel him inside of me, connected to me, the way I need air. I've been deprived too long and it's like I might die without it.

"It's more than okay," he rasps, eyes fixed on mine, reflecting back at me the hunger in my own.

I drop my hips, taking him into my body until there's nowhere further for him to go, until my bottom is cradled against his pelvis. I lean forward with my arms on either side of his face and he meets me in a kiss at the same time that he thrusts his hips upward, slowly at first, causing the tip of his cock to tap against my cervix and a shudder to run through my body.

I sit up again as Edward picks up the pace and his expression shift from sleepy lust to determination. I lean back with my hands fisting the sweatpants bunched around his knees, bracing myself for the release I can feel building in my tingling thighs and for the ride I know Edward is about to give me.

"You look so fucking hot bouncing on my cock," he growls, eyes glued to where he slides in and out of me. I love when he gets a little dirty. I reach out with one hand, eyes scrunched shut and grasping for him blindly, and he releases my hips to take my take my hands.

"God, Bella, I'm not going to last long," he pants through labored breaths as my body crashes against him.

"It's okay, Edward... let go... let go," I tell him between breathy squeals each time we connect completely.

If he wanted me to come first he doesn't need to worry because one more stroke and I'm over the edge, writhing on top of him and clamping down to hold him within me.

"Oh my...fuck," Edward moans and sucks in a stilted breath as he comes.

He relaxes his arms, never letting go of my hands while I pant on top of him, still sitting in his lap.

"Holy shit, Bella. I haven't come that hard in...I don't know. Forever."

"I know. That wasn't even all that wild for us either," I let go of one of his hands and run my fingers through the sparse hair on his chest.

"Absence makes the cock grow harder," he leers.

"Ew! It's 'heart grow fonder', you perv!" I giggle and slap his chest. "I can't imagine what I see in you."

He grins and crooks his finger at me until I lean forward and hover over his lips and give him a peck, then another, then a third for good measure.

I hear a faint giggling from outside the bedroom, alerting me to the fact that at least some of the girls are up. I knew that at least Jessica and Alice were up - I could hear them singing a duet of the theme from the Golden Girls. I guess we know what's on TV this morning.

"Okay, babe. I'm going to need you to remove your boxers," I tell Edward rolling off of him.

"I don't think I can go again yet. I'm not seventeen anymore, I need some recovery time."

"Just give me your boxers." I hold out my hand. "I have to go to the bathroom and I'm not wearing my panties. They're my favorite ones and, no offense, I don't want to get any of your jizz on them."

He shrugs and hands them over. "Fair enough."

I lift my up off the bed and pull his boxers over my hips then roll them a couple of times at the waist before I lean over the side of the bed and pick his t-shirt from the floor. "I'll take this too."

Once I'm covered I jump off the bed and fling open the door then scurry down the hall toward the bathroom.

Rose comes out of her bedroom just as I pass and does a double take.

"Bella? What are you...why are you wearing dude clothes?"

I ignore her and continue into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

I finish up and just start to wash my hands when I hear Rose shriek.

"Edward Cullen, what are you doing here? This is a girls' weekend and you are certainly not a girl!"

**CF**

Edward apologizes to the girls for barging in our on girls weekend and not a single one of them passes up a chance to tease the two of us for not being able to be apart before they concede that they really don't mind that he's here. Since it's my birthday, Rose makes me crepes for breakfast since they're my favorite and Edward downs six of them before he declares himself stuffed and ready to go down to the lake.

"Okay - bathing suit time!" I say happily, jumping up from the table to rinse off my plate. The sun is shining, it's my birthday and Edward is here. I am in a really fucking good mood.

I practically skip back to the twin room and my morning is made even better when I fling open the door to find Edward standing buck naked with his swim shorts in his hand. I shut the door behind me and click the lock, saunter toward him with a smirk until I'm right in front of him, pressed up against him.

"You know," I say, looking up at him through my lashes and ghosting my fingers up and down the side of his growing erection, "you're not supposed to swim for a half an hour after you eat. I wonder what we should do to pass the time?"

Edward shrugs and twirls a piece of my hair around his finger while I sink to my knees and wrap my fingers around him to pump him a few times. He gathers the rest of my hair up in his hand and holds it in a makeshift ponytail while he puts a bit of gentle pressure on the back of my skull, nudging me closer to him. I tap the head of his cock against my closed lips once and then again before I open up for him and bring him into my mouth, hallowing out my cheeks and sucking with just enough pressure to make him groan before I release him with a pop and run my tongue across the underside of his tip.

"More?" I taunt Edward and watch him nod frantically before I put him back in my mouth and hum around him. He makes a noise that's somewhere between a moan and a whimper when I start a pace, back and forth, in and out, until I feel his testicles twitch under my fingers, signaling me that he's almost there. He tightens his grip around my hair and I squeeze his testicles, lightly, just enough to finish him off until his release hits the back of my throat and I swallow everything he gives me.

Edward's hands fall to his sides and I stand up on my tiptoes to peck him on the lips then strip off my shirt and shorts to tie on my bikini. Edward stands there watching, shamelessly oogling me until I stalk past him, slapping him on the ass on my way out.

"See you down there, buddy."

**CF**

"Did anybody bring any sunscreen down here?" Alice asks from her place between me and Rose. All of us girls are laid out on the beach trying to soak up as much sun as possible. It's actually pretty hot out here when you're in the direct sun and I'm hoping to get enough color this weekend to last me half way to Halloween.

"Sunscreen? Are you kidding me?" Rose looks at Alice over her sunglasses.

"I don't want my tattoo to fade," Alice whines, waving her wrist in the air, the one with the tiny black lettering on the underside.

"Then turn it toward your towel. Take the sun while you can get it," Rose tells her before she turns over to sun her back.

The crunch of footsteps in gravel sounds behind us, growing closer and closer until the steps are muffled in the sand on the beach and Edward walks past balancing a kayak over his head. His shorts are riding low on his hips, almost indecently so, and all of us turn our heads as he walks in front of us. He flashes a crooked grin as he walks by and when I shove my sunglasses on top of my head to get a better look at him, he winks at me.

"Yeah, Edward! You're looking awfully jacked and tan today," Rose calls while he swings the kayak down into the water, "I didn't know we'd be going to the gun show today."

"Uh...thanks?" Edward looks a little bashful - he's not great at taking compliments.

"I would like to preface this by saying that I mean this as platonically as possible considering the fact that I think of him like a brother," Jess mutters so only the girls can hear, "but...damn. I haven't seen Edward without a shirt on for awhile and you are one lucky bitch, Bella."

I won't disagree with her there.

Edward is still standing outside the kayak, shading his eyes from the sun with one hand while he motions for me to come over to him with the other but I shake my head.

"Come on!" he begs.

"I don't want to get wet yet!"

"I want to show you something. Please," his smile fades a bit and I know he's not playing. He really wants to show me something. I dig the heels of my hands into the sand and push my self up to pad through the sand down to where he has the kayak floating in the lake.

"What is it?"

"It's over there," he points across the lake to a little cove where the woods are thick with beautiful silver birch trees. "Sit behind me and I'll paddle."

He holds the boat steady while I climb into it and then try to shift my weight to keep us from tipping over while he climbs in. Once he's settled, I wrap my arms around his stomach and lean my cheek against his back. Before I know it, the warmth of the sun on my back, the lapping waves against the kayak and rippling movement of Edward's muscles as he moves the paddle through the water has lulled me to sleep.

**CF**

"Bella?" Edward shakes my arm gently. "Bella, we're here."

I blink a few times, slowly, letting my eyes focus in the blinding, glittering light reflecting off the water and unhook my arms from around Edward's torso so he can climb out of the kayak. He take the mini-anchor out of the little compartment where you can store fish, if you were so inclined to catch any while in this tiny boat, and drops in into the water. Reaching out his arms for me, I lean forward and wrap my arms around his neck and let him pull me from the kayak. The water is shockingly cold against my sun-warmed skin and I practically climb Edward's body to lift myself out of it.

He locks his hands together under my bottom and I relax knowing he won't drop me. With the undersides of my arms resting on his shoulders I bend my elbows to lace my fingers in his hair and touch the tip of my nose to his.

"What did you want to show me?"

He tilts his head down and I can feel his long eyelashes flutter against my cheek each time he blinks.

"Do you love me, Bella?"

I tug on his hair, forcing him to look back up at me.

"Are you serious?"

The lines between his eyebrows get deeper. He's nervous about something and it's rubbing off on me.

"Edward. Sweetheart. You know I love you. I tell you everyday and I mean it when I say it. Have I given you some reason to think I don't?"

The edges of his mouth twitch up, just a bit, like he wants to smile but whatever it is that's got him wound up hasn't quite dissipated yet.

"No, Bella, it isn't that. I just wanted to hear it...it's just...fuck, I don't know why it's so hard to spit this out. It should be easy."

I smile at him and push his hair back off his forehead.

"Bella, I love you so much, if you only loved me a tenth as much, it would be enough for me. This last month away from you, it was really hard. I don't want to do that ever again." He reaches behind me into the kayak and fiddles with something while I cling to him, squeezing his hips between my thighs.

I don't know what I was expecting to see when he pulled back his hand but I can tell you it was not the sparkling diamond ring he's holding between his fingers.

"Holy...shit."

"Bella, will you marry me? Please?"

I swear to God, the shriek that came out of my mouth came out of nowhere and the joy that coursed through my body at that second was uncontrollable. If I squeezed Edward any harder, he'd asphyxiate for sure.

"Is that a yes?"

"Edward," I take his face in my hands and whisper against his lips, "I'll marry you, I'll marry you, I'll marry you."

Our lips crash together before Edward pulls us apart, if only for a moment, to slip the ring on my finger. I don't take the time to look at it. I'll look later. For now, I just want to love him.

We kiss and we kiss until we can't breath and have to part to suck oxygen into our lungs and then we kiss again. My arms never unlock from around his neck and he pulls on the strings of my bikini bottoms until they come free and he flings the tiny piece of soaked fabric into the kayak. His hands come between us, working to untie his shorts while his knuckles brush against my pussy over and over as he struggles to free the laces. Once they're finally undone, I release the hold I have around his waist and stand in the sandy bed of the lake so that he can remove his shorts one leg at a time, careful not to lose them, and toss them into the boat with my own suit. He steps closer to me until his erection is pressed against my belly and his hands caress the sides of my rib cage up to the undersides of my breasts which he frees from the cups of my swimsuit.

My leg hooks around the back of his thigh and he lifts me up again, holding me a little higher and positioning himself to ease into my body. When I've taken him all the way inside he adjusts his arms to support all of my weight. He doesn't pound in and out of me and he doesn't leave me to it either. He only moves his hips just slightly, just enough to feel the fullness of our connection, and his eyes pierce my own with the love he imparts to me with each stroke. The water swirls around us and all we can hear is the soft calls of the birds in the woods and our own ragged breath. He pours attention over my breasts, dipping his head to tenderly take each nipple into his mouth and I use his shoulders as leverage to increase the friction between us. My entire body comes alive with sensation as the tension in my body releases and I cling to Edward, muffling the cry of my pleasure against his shoulder. Edward's not far behind and he reaches out for the boat, trying to steady himself while he rides out his orgasm.

"I love you, Bella, so much I could never even tell you," he says then gives me one last searing kiss before removing himself from my body.

When his breathing returns to normal, he retrieves our suit bottoms from the boat and helps me to tie mine back on then lifts me back into the boat. On the ride back across the lake, I pull my hand from around Edward's waist and gaze at the ring on my finger. It's both simple and intricate, new looking and kind of vintage, with a silver-toned band of some sort. Whether it's white gold or platinum, I don't know or care. I wouldn't care if he got the damned thing out of a vending machine. There's one large diamond in the center surrounded by a number of smaller ones. It's impressive, that's for sure. I never would have imagined myself wearing a ring this big but it doesn't look out of place on my hand.

"Do you like it?" Edward asks me quietly with that anxious tone again.

"It's perfect. How did you pick it?" I wasn't really the type of girl to talk about weddings and big white dresses and fancy engagement rings. I've never said what type of ring I like or don't like.

"Well, Emmett helped me, actually. Kind of. We went into the jewelers to look at rings for Rose. He described Rose's style and the clerk pulled out this ring. I thought it was beautiful and I couldn't help but hope he wouldn't choose it because I wanted it for you. Lucky for me, he said it was nice but not quite what he wanted. He said it was 'a Bella ring, not a Rose ring' and he was right, it was like he read my mind. I went back and got it the next day."

"Edward - Rose and Emmett have been engaged for six months."

"Yeah."

"You've had this ring for six months?"

He shrugged. "I've known you for fifteen years, Bella. I've been in love with you for half of them if I really consider it. I was ready to marry you the second you kissed me in the twin room a couple of years ago."

"Why were you so nervous about asking me then?" I peel my eyes from my hand and wrap my arms back around him, kissing the constellation of freckles on his back.

"How could I not have been? You're the only one I want for the rest of my life. That's kind of a lot to ask of someone else."

"What, that I'd want you for the rest of my life too?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I do. The rest of my life and whatever happens after that."

We're nearing the beach and the girls rouse when Edward jumps out of the kayak and into the lake, splashing them with the cold water.

"Edward!" Tanya shrieks then makes a show of wiping non-existent droplets off her boobs.

"Mike called, they should be here any second,"Jess says. "Surprise," she adds sarcastically but not necessarily disappointed. We gave up on the whole girls only thing the second I started balling my eyes out last night.

On cue, Emmett, Jasper, Mike and Ben come clomping down the path to the beach, already dressed in their swim trunks and cracking up about something. Emmett bounds over to me and swings me up into his arms, squeezing the air out of me and flopping me around like a ragdoll.

"Happy Birthday, Bells!" he bellows then passes me to Jasper who is only minutely less enthusiastic than Emmett.

"Eeeeeeeeeee!"

Jasper drops me and we turn to look at the source of the ear splitting sound which appears to have come from Alice.

"What. Is. On. Your. Hand?" Alice stops her little wiggling, jumping dance and hold her hand out to me. I do my best version of an Edward-style crooked smile and place my hand daintily into hers.

"Bella, that's beautiful!" Angela coos and grins at Edward, "Nice job, Edward!"

I turn to Tanya and I can't resist. I hold my hand out toward her. "What do you think, huh?"

She lifts her sunglasses and feigns indifference. "It's nice. A little ostentatious, maybe."

"Well, don't worry," Rose tells her, "I'm sure Prospector Pete can dig you up something not quite so ostentatious, as you put it. If you're seeing him again, that is."

"Shut up, Rose. And his name isn't Pete! It's...it's...it's not Pete!"

The boys watch the mini cat fight until Emmett rolls his eyes and speaks up.

"Dude! I thought you were going to wait until tonight so we could all see it!" Emmett crosses his arms over his chest.

"Nah, man. It didn't feel right. I was nervous enough, I didn't need an audience."

"Yeah, I hear that. You have to concentrate when you're trying to lock down your lady for life," Emmett nods and pulls Rose into his side.

"Emmett! I'm not property. I'm not 'locked down' and neither is Bella."

"Ah, well," I sigh, looking up at Edward. "Maybe so, but I suppose being locked down to Edward wouldn't be so terrible." He smiles and I give him a wink of my own.

"Some feminist you are, Bella Swan!" Rose chides with her hands on her hips.

"Alright, enough of this. It's awfully hot out here, don't you think?" Jasper doesn't wait for a reply before he picks up Alice and makes a dash for the water and jumps right off the dock with Alice screaming the whole way. I don't even have time to see them resurface before my fiance throws me over his shoulder and takes off.

My fiance. Edward's been my friend, then my best friend, then my boyfriend. But fiance? That is by far the best yet.


End file.
